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Forum Member
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 31/07/2007 10:01:40
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| I know the regular season has finished some weeks ago but we have had alot of friendlies and a couple of tournaments since the season has finished and have been using training to prepare for them. I have one more tournament in 4 weeks time and other than that nothing until the new season starts in Septmeber. Its my first off season and wanted to know should my training now be different to what I do 'in season'. I never get time in normal training to work specifically on corners for example and thought I'd try that but would appreciate your views from those who have experienced it all before on how my approach should change. It will be our Under 8's B and C teams that I take care of from September onwards.
Woolston Rovers Warrington
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Forum Member
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Last Login: 27/11/2007 09:42:51
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| I'm taking U8s next season too. It is definitely my plan to do as many sessions as possible this summer. For me, the main aim is to get a bit of team spirit giong, work on core skills, and as you say, procedures for set drills. Nothing too physically strenuous. I'm arranging at least three friendlies for pre-season so they're not freaked out by going straight into competitive matches. I've done a bit of summer training in the past and the difficulty is the heat. I suppose it's best to take it easy and just let them have as much ball work as possible. Either way we should benefit from simply spending time together as a team.
Dwyer
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Last Login: 13/02/2008 21:21:46
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Last summer was the first time that I worked with my then U9 boys team through any part of the summer. Typically the league has us start practice about 3 weeks before games. The boys wanted to keep playing so I made them a deal, take the month of June off and we will start again in July, but only once a week. I ran the summer weeks like a mini-camp. Each week focusing on a completely different skill, vs. trying to start at with a skill and build. All of the activities that practice would be related to that particular skill. We would work through the activities for about 30 to 45 minutes and then just play for 30 minutes. They had a blast. One week we worked on ball control. Another passing both short and long. Another heading. One week everyone worked on goal keeping skills. Another week was shooting, etc. The kids really enjoyed it and it was very different from our regular practices. We didn't do any work on set pieces, but it would be a good opportunity to do this if you can make it into a fun activity.
Heat during the summer is usually worse. Since the kids are out of school and the sun is up a later, we moved our practice time to later in the evening to help with the heat some. Just make sure you take lots of extra water and break often enough to keep the boys hydrated. This work really pays off as you enter the fall. My team started the season in incredible condition and ready to play matches. They weren't still trying to remember what a soccer ball looked like. We had a small side with only 3 subs and usually at least one was gone. We even played one game with no subs. Due to the workouts in the summer our conditioning was better than the other teams in the league and even if they had kept up with us in the first half, we would just run past them in the 2nd half as they were too tired as a side to play full speed. We did no specific conditioning work, just lots of touches and lots of playing.
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Forum Member
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Last Login: 05/03/2010 10:49:12
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Summer coaching is an exellent opportunity to do what Sharks suggests above. I also use it as a fantastic bonding exercise whereby every so often we play rounders instead of football and get all the parents involved, couple that with a barbie and a few drinks and everyone enjoys themselves. Last summer we had a boys v dads cricket match which worked well. It bonds the team and gives some of the boys chance to shine in other sports.
Dave Clarke, Editor of Soccer Coach Weekly and Better Soccer Coaching
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